Applicant for ‘Affinity Project’ Complex Proposed for Arroyo Parkway at California Boulevard Hits Pause Button

Pasadena’s Planning Commission was scheduled to conduct a public hearing on Wednesday, June 8, to gather public input on The Arroyo Parkway, LLC’s Affinity Project, at 465-577 South Arroyo Parkway. 

But that will have to wait. According to a city document, the applicant has requested a continuance on the hearing. 

“Staff does not object to this request and recommends the Planning Commission continue the application to a date certain,” according to the staff report. 

The new date was not listed in the memo. 

The Arroyo Parkway, LLC, has submitted applications for a Planned Development (PD) District and Variance for Historic Resources on the planned future site of the Affinity Project, consisting of 3.3 acres. The project will include demolishing six of the nine existing commercial buildings on the site, and construction of two seven-story buildings consisting of medical office uses, assisted living and independent living uses, and ground floor commercial uses. 

Included is the ability to exchange medical office uses for up to 197 residential dwelling units. Up to five new levels of subterranean parking would accommodate the uses. 

Plans submitted to the Department of Planning and Community Development showed three existing buildings will be kept on the site, notably the Whole Foods Market site and an associated subterranean parking structure at 465 South Arroyo Parkway, and two historic structures at 501 and 523 South Arroyo Parkway. 

The proposal requires reclassification of the project site from CD-6 (Central District Specific Plan, Arroyo Corridor/Fair Oaks subdistrict) to a PD (Planned Development) zoning district, and the adoption of a PD Plan, which should establish the applicable land use and development requirements.

For the public’s information, a final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) has been posted, with supporting materials, on www.cityofpasadena.net/planning/planned-development-39-affinity-project.